Half a year had passed.
Ye Xuan had traversed deep mountains and vast marshes, wandered through deserts and grasslands; he had left his footsteps all across the globe.
Atop the snowy mountain peak, he howled at the sky; on the boundless grassland, he roared towards the heavens; high above the vast sky, he drank alone, gazing at the waning crescent, feeling utterly desolate.
Immortal!
Such an enticing notion, yet who could know the choices Ye Xuan had faced, the immense suffering he had endured to reach that state?
Buddha said: Human life knows seven miseries—greed, wrath, ignorance, resentment, hatred, departures of loved ones, unfulfilled desires...
Buddha said: To live is to suffer.
But Buddha forgot to mention: The path to becoming an immortal is long, accompanied by fresh breezes, spanning years with no promise of reunion—this is the great sorrow and resentment in life!
Life blossoms like the radiant summer flower; death is as beautiful as the autumn leaf.
